Ward 15 Redistricting – Timeline

(Last updated 5/5/09 –
Wow, it’s been a month later, and I haven’t followed up with this as much I would have liked. I’ll continue to follow any developments and find out when these new boundaries are going into effect.

I’m writing this as a personal exercise, but also because a clear timeline of events involving Old Brooklyn, the City of Cleveland, or NEO, often do not exist. While I was on study abroad and away from neighborhood in Michigan, I found it difficult to ‘catch up’ of the events going on in the neighborhood. Based on a few conversations with current or former residents [friends and neighbors], people, including myself, found themselves a bit unclear, or wondered, what were the background developments that led to these events. Stories in the Plain Dealer sometimes don’t give the background of these events and situations. By giving this timeline, I hope to help others and myself understand the background and context of the current situation, leading to a greater understanding of the issues that face us today, and all of which are often missing in local news, journalism, and public discourse today.

Granted, what is below is not the entire list of all of the people, events, that influenced the decisions at hand. What I do wish to include here is a list of people, events, ideas, and communications, that directly were born from the Ward 15 redistricting process.

(I’ve found no mention whether the proposed ward boundaries were explicitedly announced at this meeting). According to Anthony Fossaceca , the discussion only focused on the probability that one unspecificed west-side ward would be eliminated. I don’t know whether it is just coincidence that the next day, March 5th, Brian Cummins was told the proposed boundaries.

(I just found out the oldbrooklyn blog, great to see a few new bloggers from the Old Brooklyn neighborhood, I’ve been alone (and/or unaware of others, besides the Ferris’es from Brooklyn Centre) for a while now..).

April 1st – proposed deadline for the final recommendations for redistricting from Triad consultants. Deadline for city council to pass plans for ward redistricting. If they do not pass anything, this power goes to Mayor Frank Jackson.

A list of who’s who, to Catch up with the names.

Bill Callahan – local blogger.

Brian Cummins – Ward 15 Councilman, Old Brooklyn

Henry Gomez – Plain Dealer’s and cleveland.com (operated by Plain Dealer)’s City Hall reporter
Martin Sweeney – president of Cleveland City Council

Triad Research – the Consultants who created the proposed ward boundaries for the city.